1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to an image forming device, such as a copier, a printer, a fax or an MFP (multifunction peripheral), an image forming device controlling method, and a recording medium. In particular, the present disclosure relates to an image forming device, an image forming device controlling method, and a recording medium, the image forming device being arranged to include a power measuring unit that measures a power consumption of the device and enables a user to monitor a state of the power consumption.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming device, such as a copier, a printer, a fax, or an MFP (multifunction peripheral), which performs image output processing based on the image data obtained from a document by the scanner provided in the image forming device, or based on image data received from an external device, such as a PC (personal computer), reduction of power consumption of the image forming device is demanded with a growing interest in the environmental issues.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-106079 discloses a printer system which is adapted for reducing a power consumption of an image forming device. In this printer system, an image forming device, a network hub (HUB), a PC, an AC power supply, and a wattmeter are included. The network hub is arranged to supply electric power to the image forming device via a network. The PC is arranged to supply electric power to the image forming device via a communication interface, such as a USB (universal serial bus). The AC power supply supplies electric power to these devices in common. The wattmeter measures a total power consumption that is supplied by the AC power supply, and transmits the measured total power consumption to the image forming device.
In the printer system, the power source of the image forming device is switched to one of the AC power supply, the HUB and the PC in accordance with the load condition of the image forming device so as to minimize the total power consumption measured by the wattmeter.
Generally, the respective capacities (or the allowable output power) of the internal power circuits of the AC power supply, the HUB and the PC differ from each other, and the respective efficiencies of AC to DC voltage transform thereof also differ from each other. Hence, in accordance with the load condition (or the power consumption state) of the internal circuit of the image forming device which operates by the resulting DC voltage, a power source having a largest transform efficiency is selected from among the AC power supply, the HUB, and the PC, and electric power is supplied from the selected power source to the image forming device, in order to reduce the power consumption of the whole printer system.
However, in the printer system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-106079, a power consumption of the wattmeter itself is not taken into consideration, and therefore the fact that an additional power consumption is required for measurement of the power consumption is not taken into consideration. The result of measurement of the power consumption is used only for the switching of the power source in this printer system. Hence, the user cannot view the effect of reducing the power consumption of the whole printer system. The user cannot view the exact amount of the power consumption of the image forming device.